Sheboygan men hope to create memorial to Hmong wartime flyers

Mar. 25, 2013

John Helminiak, left, and Vue Yang are spearheading an effort to create a memorial to Vietnam-era Hmong pilots who flew T-28s, a model of which sits in front of them. It is hoped the memorial, to be located at Sheboygan County Memorial Airport, will include a real T-28. / Photo by Bruce Halmo/Sheboygan Press Media

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For more information on the Hmong pilots memorial, contact John Helminiak, executive director of the Aviation Heritage Center, at 262-893-5500.

The ‘Secret War’ is still a secret to many

Vue Yang has no trouble remembering the Secret War. He was a teenager when his people, the Hmong in Laos, joined the fight against Communism in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. The Hmong were already a minority in northern Laos when they sided with the Laotian monarch, and the United States, in the war against the Communist forces of the Pathet Lao. Until 1975, when the Pathet Lao took over the Laotion government and the United States withdrew from Southeast Asia, the Hmong people worked side by side with American forces to repel the Communists. Special Guerrilla Unit soldiers helped American soldiers and intelligence officials disrupt Communist supply lines, obtain intelligence and were instrumental in the rescues of American pilots. There were also 38 specially trained Hmong pilots, who flew in reconditioned T-28 military training aircraft on bombing raids in tandem with covert American pilots, called Ravens, who flew reconnaissance missions. When the United States withdrew from Laos, the Hmong people were left at the mercy of their enemies and thousands of them escaped across the Mekong River into Thailand, where they lived in refugee camps, some families for generations. The first Hmong people emigrated to the United States in the mid- to late-1970s and then in the early 1980s, with many coming to Sheboygan where local church members sponsored them. In all, about a quarter million Hmong fled to the United States, with the largest concentrations settling in Saint Paul, Minn., Fresno and Sacramento, Calif., and in Milwaukee. About 5,000 Hmong people call Sheboygan home. The Hmong people who remain in Laos are considered enemies of the state and live in hiding, according to some published reports. In Thailand, Hmong people were illegal aliens who were confined to refugee camps. Yang, who came to the United States in the early 1980s and owns Union Oriental market, has become a leader in the local Hmong community and he wants to make sure the history of the Hmong people isn’t forgotten. “It’s just a big thing to educate the people what happened then and now,” Yang said. “That’s my bigger concern, (that) the story will be lost.” — Janet Ortegon

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Vue Yang used to ride in the rear seat of T-28 fighters in the late 1960s when his friends — Hmong pilots — were dropping bombs on Communists during the Secret War in Laos.

Now 60 and a business owner in Sheboygan, Yang wants to make sure the sacrifice and heroism of his old friends are never forgotten.

Working with John Helminiak, executive director of the Aviation Heritage Center, Yang is trying to raise money to create a memorial to Hmong pilots at the Sheboygan County Airport.

“I was not a pilot, I was just a little boy, a curious boy,” said Yang, who was a young teen during the war. “My friends, they were pilots ... We went to the front, and while they were dropping bombs I was doing sightseeing, I was enjoying the G-factor.”

Helminiak, a pilot, author and dedicated history lover, read about the story of the Hmong pilots of the “Secret War” years ago. When he came to Sheboygan to head the Aviation Heritage Center, he knew the time was right.

“I think most Americans, most Wisconsinites, don’t understand why the Hmong are here,” Helminiak said. “It’s a fascinating story about how the Hmong who volunteered, many of whom had never even flown in an airplane before, suddenly became some of the best fighter pilots in that region.”

According to Yang, whose father, Yong Chue Yang, was a colonel in the Special Guerrilla Unit that fought against the Communists, there were 38 Hmong pilots who worked with American fighter pilots, dubbed Ravens, running covert bombing operations against the Communist Pathet Lao.

“(Hmong pilots) worked side by side with American Air Force pilots who volunteered to basically be stripped of their rank and go to work for the CIA flying the Secret War out of Laos,” Helminiak said. “They embraced the Hmong as one of their own, taught the Hmong to fly, flew with them, fought in combat with them. I mean they were brothers in arms.”

Only 17 of the 38 Hmong pilots are still alive, and Helminiak said that increases the urgency to get the project off the ground.

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“We would like the living Hmong pilots to see it and we’re losing them,” he said.

To pull it off, Helminiak and Yang are looking for a donors to cover the entire cost, estimated at between $80,000 and $100,000.

They’re also going to be soliciting smaller donations from the Hmong people, Helminiak said, to foster a sense of ownership in the project.

“We would like one, two or three individuals, corporations or foundations who believe strongly enough in the purpose of this to step forward,” Helminiak said. “We also recognize it’s important for the Hmong to have an investment in this a well.”

When the money is secured, Helminiak and Yang will purchase a T-28, which are still around and being flown by private owners. Once it’s restored, early plans call for an exhibit outside the Sheboygan County Airport complete with an observation deck so visitors can sit in the cockpit.

The exhibit will also include uniforms and other artifacts from Hmong pilots.

Yang said that based on the continuing interest in the Lao, Hmong and American Veterans Memorial in Deland Park — a project he spearheaded along with other community leaders — he expects the pilots memorial to strike a chord.

“The younger generation, they are born here … they have no clue why their parents came,” Yang said. “Or they have a piece and bit of the story, but they don’t really know the whole truth. This exhibit will tell them the story, that their ancestors or their parents or their father, they were courageous people. They had courage to fight and to take their future in their hands.”

The effort has gotten the OK from the Sheboygan County Board of Supervisors Transportation Committee, which oversees the airport.

“I think we have to remember that these people were our allies and I think it’ll be a nice addition to the airport,” said Richard Bemis, chairman of the committee.

Yang said he can always tell when a T-28 is flying overhead, “that noise is very specific,” and he wants to pass along the story and the pride he feels.

“That’s my bigger concern, is the story will be lost,” said Yang. “I owe them something.”